


Rendezvous

by Shouhei Narumi (RaidouKuzunoha)



Category: Kamen Rider Blade
Genre: 300 years my ass, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Post-Series, mostly fluff tho
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-06
Updated: 2017-04-06
Packaged: 2018-10-15 07:30:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,291
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10552462
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RaidouKuzunoha/pseuds/Shouhei%20Narumi
Summary: “Hey...It's been a while.” Kenzaki’s words are sheepish, tinged with a quiet humor.“That’s something of an understatement.”





	

**Author's Note:**

> I watched Blade. I got depressed. The very next day, I started writing this.

The next time they meet, it's springtime. The air is full of the conflicting smells of the salty ocean air and the dirt of the cliff, made freshly wet with a passing rain shower. Hajime Aikawa shivers a little with the breeze off the water, the temperature still a little lower than is entirely comfortable to stand around in this early in the season. His hands are in his pockets to avoid the cold, and one of them toys absently with the phone there.

_It's been two years._

The last time they met, they had fought side by side with a bright, young Rider who introduced himself as Tenkuji Takeru, and another who the boy had cheerfully called his brother. He'd fought Kenzaki, almost lost himself to the call of battle, if not for the intervention of that young Rider and his friend. He'd....gotten to talk with him. Face to face, for the first time in over a decade. Not through one-sided phone calls. It felt more like it had been a century. If Hajime focused, he could still feel the warmth of Kenzaki's hand against his-even though the contact had been muddled by their suits-from what Takeru had enthusiastically called a "fistbump".

He fought down the pang in his chest that resulted from bringing this back up again, and looked around for what felt like the tenth time in so many minutes. Hajime took his phone out of his pocket to scroll through the messages there, to see if he'd gotten the date or the time wrong. As if he could forget something as important as this.

Once they had seen each other again, neither of them could really deny how much they missed the other. It had resulted in the first phone call between the two riders where it hadn't been just Hajime talking absently about his life into the quiet, never expecting an answer. When the near-whispered _"Hajime"_ came through the speaker, Hajime had been so shaken that he dropped the glass he was cleaning, causing it to shatter, echoing in the cafe and startling the customers. He'd stood there, not even noticing the glass shards scattered around his feet. Hajime answered Kenzaki with a voice sounding strangled to match the tightness in the back of his throat.

After that, their calls hadn't been often- they blamed Kenzaki's constant travel and lack of a good signal in many places, knowing that that wasn't the entire truth- but at least Hajime hadn't had to talk into the silence anymore. They'd even shared the occasional video call, though seeing each other and not being able to reach out, to touch, was often too much for either of them. As was the urge to say, _to hell with it all._

They'd never acted on it, of course, and time moved forward for both of them. Hajime continued with his photography. Kenzaki continued to be everywhere and nowhere at once.

It had been Amane who had made the initial suggestion. Amane had grown into a strong young woman, graduated college with an art degree and moved out to the city to work in an advertising firm and be closer to her girlfriend. It wasn’t that Hajime wasn’t proud of her, but even Amane caught on sometimes how lonely it was for him back in Jacaranda, now that Haruka left most of the management to him and Amane could only visit a few times a month in the busy seasons. She’d nevertheless something of a confidant of her own volition, unwilling to allow the man who had become something of a father to her suffer quietly if _she_ had any say in the matter. Hajime was stubborn, and grumpy, but faced with her iron will he always seemed to back down.

He still didn’t know how she’d done it, exactly, but it seemed that even Tachibana was no match for her, since the older man (who showed clear signs of aging at this point but looked surprisingly content) had fought back barely at all against the suggestion that the two of them research a way to _make this work_. Then again, Hajime had seen the sad and understanding glint in the other man’s eyes and realized that maybe he hadn’t needed as much convincing as Hajime had previously thought.

Which is why Hajime was standing here now, at the cliffside where they'd parted ways, getting increasingly cold in the breeze. And frustrated. Had _Kenzaki_ forgotten? The man was an idiot, but he had never been particularly forgetful. He glances at his phone yet again rereading the last message over for what must have been the 100th time. _Yes. I'll see you soon_. If Kenzaki didn’t---

There's a soft crunch of leaves behind him that puts Hajime on alert, though he doesn't turn around. Instead, he slides phone and his hands back into the pocket of his light cream jacket and waits. And he's not holding his breath, he's definitely _not_ doing that, but when a warm presence settles next to him, just out of reach, the sigh that escapes him is immense.

Something that's been missing has just clicked into place, once again.

 _“Hey...It's been a while.”_ Kenzaki’s words are sheepish, tinged with a quiet humor.

“ _That’s something of an understatement.”_ He breathes, still unable to turn around, since a small part of him still thinks that this might be another trick of his mind. This is proven wrong when he feels a small tug on his sleeve, and he finally turns around to face Kenzaki. The other man is wearing a small smile, and it's more effective in warming Hajime up in this chilly weather than the warmest coat.

“ _Should we uh….”_ The taller man makes a wild gesture in several directions, “. _..It's pretty windy up here.”_

 _“I’m aware. There's a place we can sit down that path”_ Hajime says back, since he was the only who's been waiting there all this time. Kenzaki's expression turns sheepish at the pointed reply. The two of them start to head down the path, Kenzaki straggling behind him.

“ _Sorry about that. My flight was delayed.”_ Other than the occasional gusts of wind over the cliff and the soft thuds of their footsteps against the damp ground as they head down to the picnic area, it was almost eerily quiet. The space between them was tangible.

 _“Don't worry about it. We have all the time in the world, after all.”_ Hajime stated, sitting down at one of the benches that the sun had already dried. Kenzaki sits down on the other end of the bench. As far from him as possible, Hajime realizes with a twinge.

A shadow passes over Kenzaki's face briefly as he replies. _“Yeah…”_ he seems to flounder a moment before his face lights up again in that familiar, easy smile. _“How is everyone else? How did Amane’s move go?”_

This was something Hajime had no problem talking about. And sure, he occasionally updated Kenzaki on how their friends were doing, but he assumed it was much better to hear everything in person instead of over the phone or in a written message. He talks to Kenzaki about Amane's new job, how the cafe is holding up, his next photography gig, about Mutsuki’s marriage to his long-time girlfriend and their new baby, about Tachibana trying hard, and failing, not to gush over his godchild (which gets an actual full-out giggle from Kenzaki, causing Hajime’s voice to catch in his throat for a moment).

 _“I should stop by sometime,”_ the other rider sighs wistfully, some of that sadness from earlier returning to his face. He hasn’t aged a day, Hajime knows, but he looks older nonetheless. It’s a detail he could hide in video calls, when distance made things easier.

 _“They miss you too, you know.”_ Hajime says, and he’s frustrated, they were Kenzaki’s friends before Hajime, and he saw the slight melancholy that hit them each time Kenzaki wasn’t there for important celebrations, and Kenzaki was just so _god damn self-sacrificing_ to the point where it was maddening. He wouldn’t trade his time with Amane for the world, but after all he’d done, all he’d sacrificed for them, for _Hajime,_ Kenzaki deserved so, so much more.

 _“I know.”_ comes the reply, softly. They make eye contact and Kenzaki’s eyes are strange and warm, and Hajime realizes that he’s said more than he meant to. _I miss you too_.

The space between them is suddenly unbearable. Standing, Hajime moves in front of the other man, who is surprised and still seated on the bench. His surprise turns to worry as he looks into Hajime’s eyes, trying to find something in his gaze that would clue him in to this being the call, their call to fight. But there is no faint buzzing in his ear, just Hajime’s outstretched hand as he pulls the taller man up to meet him.

He doesn't stop there, either. With a small effort Hajime reaches up and wraps his arms around Kenzaki's shoulders. Even now he was warm, uncommonly warm for an Undead. It reminded Hajime of fleeting touches, reassuring hands on his shoulder and a voice that told him adamantly that _I believe in you_.

Kenzaki was blushing up to his ears, the strange green undertone in contrast with his normal sunny countenance. He tried, weakly, to push away from the other man. _“Hajime, the---_ ”

Hajime looked up. _“Tachibana made sure. You know well enough that he'd come after us both if there was any danger.”_ He'd learned something of a dry humor while Kenzaki was gone. It was a point of pride, that he was _human,_ that he was winning against his inhumanity.

Kenzaki's chuckle is choked off and quiet, and Hajime can almost sense the moment that his unspoken resolve cracks. And then he can feel it. Because Kenzaki suddenly has his arms wrapped around him and it's almost suffocating, in the best possible way.

“ _Hajime_ .” Kenzaki murmurs into his shoulder. “ _Hajime_.”

Hearing his name like that fills Hajime with an affection that, even after 13 years, is still overwhelming. He doesn’t say anything, but tightens his grip as some sort of answer. Actions tended to always speak louder than words for them anyway.

They stay like that for a while, just relishing the fact that something like this is even possible. That they’re both _tangible, and alive, and here._ And that they have friends that would go so far to help them both. Hajime doesn’t know how he went so long without that, before. Hating the idea of friendship, even.

Kenzaki seems to have been on a similar train of thought, since when they finally pull away from each other he’s grinning. _“I really do owe Tachibana a visit, huh?”_

 _“I’d say so,”_ and he himself owed him probably more than a _few_ free servings of spaghetti the next time he stopped by the cafe.

They spent the rest of their time in easy company, chatting aimlessly about this and that, Kenzaki sharing stories of his travels to the strangest places. He talked about how once he met another Rider of all things when on his way around South America- a strange man with underwear and a broken coin as his only possessions. More and more kamen riders seem to be coming out of the woodwork as they got older. _It was almost something of a relief_ , Hajime thought to himself.

It was quiet out where they walked, only the occasional bird keeping the two of them company. If Hajime had to guess, he’d chalk it down to the passing storms from earlier in the day. It was better this way. If anything happened, only the two of them would be there.

The sun was setting when Hajime's phone rang out from his pocket. They had been walking back to the meeting point at the top of the cliff, watching as the sun sank slowly behind the trees. Tachibana said he'd contact them if there was any change in plan. At Kenzaki's questioning, look he walked ahead as he picked up his phone, partially to mask the way his face fell when he saw the message.

 

> _We've caught a signal. The Stone of Sealing is currently over Shandong._
> 
> _It must have recognized your presences earlier than calculated._
> 
> _Wrap things up._
> 
> _-Tachibana_

He barely saw the attached image taken from the modified Undead-searcher (Hirose, now a computer engineer at Tachibanas company, had helped the older man modify the searcher to pick up the signals the Stone of Sealing made) the monolith's current location before he felt it. Something like a prickling at the back of his neck. They still had a little time before the monolith arrived, but it really was time to leave. Again.

_For how long. Another year? Another 10?_

From the quiet release of breath behind him, he knew that Kenzaki had felt it too.

 _“We need to get going.”_ He said into the silence, turning around. When he did, he was almost startled to find Kenzaki right there, his face barely a foot away.

_“Kenzaki?”_

The kiss was gentle, Kenzaki's lips were as warm as the rest of him. Hajime hadn't expected it, barely hoped for it, but as he returned the kiss something else seemed to just click into place. Kenzaki pulled away only to press a kiss to his cheek, his nose, his forehead.

When he finally backed away, there was a determined look in his eyes and a stubborn set to his jaw, that was so weirdly nostalgic that Hajime found himself smiling even more.

_“I’ll find a way out of this and….Hajime, I’ll see you again.”_

Those words said more than any confession ever would.

**Author's Note:**

> ((a few days later Hajime gets a message from Kenzaki, just a very quick and excited message about downloading a sort of speedy photosharing and messaging app. He nearly falls over when he receives a short video of Kenzaki with puppy ears and a tongue licking his phone screen. Technology is wild.))
> 
> The meeting with Takeru and Makoto was from a special live show that they did for Valentine's day. Yeah.


End file.
